Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-12-25
A LOST ART.
SOMETHING OF TIE HISTORY OF WOOD
YNeRAviEG.
Babylorian seals-hanusoripts- Du-
rer-His nvention-eone Of His Pic
tures-0ar Day.
NV. In journal Of Commerce.

/ the art OF woOd-eDgraying can look VIII
complacency on the boasts Of modern
wood-engravers that they have brought
that art to such perfection that they are
entitled to be regarded as its masters.
Nor is it fair 10 the History OF Art to
allow the statement TO go unchailenged
before the modern world that the art
which now furnishes "A large part OF the
illustration OF our magazines Is that Old
art whose triumphs are famous.
II is important to give those who are
interested in knowing about art and art
history correct views about wooden
craving.
Let MS begin atthe beginning. Baby
lonian seals, four thousand years ago, I'M
pressed signatures on written documents.
| Men wrote in those days and IN that
country with the corner Of a style which
| had rectangular q, and the corner
made cnneiform, wedge-shaped, impress
sions in clay tablets. they using clay as
we use paper. The seal was then GYM
der, to be relied over the clay. 1t was
! the first roller printing and 1t
printed letters and pictures OF men and
of gods. The art OF thus printing PIC
/ lures from engraved surfaces was used
with color in later times. We have no
specimens of color-printing, butwe have
some Roman stamps for printing, and
these suffice to prove the survival OF the
art down 10 the fifteenth century after
| Christ. In the early fifteenth century
| If not in the thirteenth and fourteenth,
] Ia 1 IN 4 &
/ pecially in Germany, 50 many men en-
ployed in cutting stamps of wood with
/ which TO print color that guilds of form
schneiders (model-cuttersl existed. The
stamps were used to print patterns on
PLAYING cards, as we know by specimens.
/ / have few before me rs | write. 1t IS
probable also that they were used to
print forms for religious pictures. In
! ali cases the stamp only printed a form,
which was afterward filed out with col
ors by hand.
The Oldest specimen We have oil a
form for a pictufe printed from a wood
block Except on playing cards. ID 1t.
/ Christopher. which bears the date l423.
/ Perhaps it Is, perhaps it is not, the date
Of tue work. About that time such
prints were known, and not long after
. became common. Mary were made, as
was the st Christopher. with legends cut
/ on the blocks to be printed. 80 the art
of printing words and sentences and
pages, from wood-cut blocks came into
use. ana then Gutenberg. not long after
/ 1850, seized the idea Of separately-cu
letters, which could be "set up "-naine-
/ ly, what we call type-and so printing
with movable type came.
Printing was only method Of rapid
writing So It's inventor regarded 1t.
/ The earlyprinttd books were J0c simiteS
of manuscripts 1t had been common
to ornament manuscripts by painting the
initials Of chapters and sections IN large
and ornamental letters. So in printed
books blanks were left wherein the owner
/ could have such letters painted by hand.
Soon. however, some few engraved mi
tial letters began 10 be printed, notably
in the great psalterof tausta and Schoilter
/ OF l457. Manuscripts had been orna-
mcnted with border designs. The print
ers began to have these ornaments cut
on blocks aud printed them IL books.
! have no earlier example OF this
than IN the DuHndus by Laincr Of l4iO,
in which the outline OF a vino runs
up the margin Of the first folio, printed
from wood block aud aiterward painted
/ by hand Manuscripts had been orna-
mented with pictures, most commonly
/ pictures set in the manuscript. Inc
/ m-schneiders began about li6) TO
/ furnish the printers with blocks on which
/ they had ct tue forms. outline sketches
Of pictures to be printed in the book.
/ These were afterVard TO be painted in
colors by artists, who made n business of
/ thus ornamcutng books An immense
number Of books were printed before
/ 1890 containing pictures OF this sort. 1t
the same time the form-schneiders con-
tnued to cut blocks for printing outlines
OF religious pictures which monks and
others finished in cOlors.
Up to 1870 that art which we have
/ known as tue art OF wood engraving
cannot be said TO have existed. The art
which made the blocks for the pictures
and books We have spoken OF was no
advance on the seal cutting of the early
( Babyloniaus. Nor was it an art capable
OF any advance, since it was mere form
cutting, its purpose being mainly to en-
able those who painted pictures to pro-
duce many copies Of the same picture IN
cheap style. in books it made all copies
OF the book alike. No known artist OF
the fifteenth century Lad used the art to
/ publish his pictures.
But the important fact is that up to
1880 the art had never produced a pic
/ ture. The purpose OF the art was to pro-
duce colored pictures, not printed pic
lures. 1t printed only plans for pictures,
and no picture printed from wood
block was complete till the painter he'd
painted it in colors. Nor in the middle
of the century did the general public
know anything about pictures IN black
lines on white paper They knew only
colored pictures. [ cannot stop to en-
phasize tins fact, which escapes the no.
tice OF writer's on art history. Ask your
self what ideas you would get from a
black printed picture ii you had never
seen one a? Try 1t on child, or an In
dian, and see il he can tell horse from
a COW or an elephant in photograph or
/ an engmviDg.
Now came into the world Albert Durer.
He was living in Nuremberg with his
wife Agnes. He was Il Young artist OF
deep thought, full OF desire to make hrs
art teacher0f his age. / have imagined
his course OF thought. The great print
! ing-ofiice Of his godfather Koburger, in
| Nuremberg, WAS laundering day after
dav. He heard it. and he said to him
If and TO Agnes: mot great while
ago my friends, aud the great men of the
dav, who teach and preach by word Of
mouth, could only reach men by manu-
script and their voices. Now this great
art Of printing multiplies their manu-
scripts so tUat they become thousand
teaching and preaching voices. But l.,
/ who am also teacher of great truths,
can only paint picture, and speak
| throngh Il 10 the few who see It, How